Tuesday, April 9, 2013

DEAR READERS: TUNE IN FOR CHAPTER 5

Chapter 5

I
stood in the bathroom
and held my breath. Mr. Thomas thundered down from the third floor. I tried to
breathe normally, taking in slow, deep breaths. His footsteps stopped on the
second floor landing.

How was I going to get out
of this mess? Mom would kill me if she knew I'd been up prowling at night with
a strange man living upstairs.

I stared at my reflection in
the mirror. My face matched the red pajamas that peaked from the neckline of my
sweatshirt.

More footsteps.

I flushed the toilet. It
would give me a few extra minutes while I thought of what to do.

Had Mr. Thomas actually seen
me?

Quickly, I shed my outer
clothes like a snake slipping out of his old skin. It was a good thing I'd left
my pajamas on underneath my clothes. I turned on the water faucet and shoved
the jeans and sweatshirt under the sink. Taking one last look in the mirror, I
rubbed my wild brown curls into a tangled mass before turning off the
water.

I took a big breath and
opened the bathroom door. Mrs. Picket, the drama coach, would have been
impressed with my yawn. My open hand covered most of my face and my eyes were
half-shut.

Mr. Thomas waited by the
door. He glared and his hands were balled into angry fists that hung at his
sides like clubs.

"Were you
upstairs?" he demanded and went on without giving me a chance to answer.
"I've rented the third floor and you have no right to be up there."

I yawned again. "I
don't know what you're talking about." I crossed my toes in my slippers.
It was just a little fib. "I had to go to the bathroom."

I side-stepped him and
started for the dragon room. He stepped closer and grabbed my arm. His hot
breath sent a shudder down my back.

"I'm warning you,
little girl.Stay out of my
business or else."

"Jessica?" It was
Mom's voice. It was about time she woke up. "Is everything all
right?"

I jerked my arm from the
man's grasp. "Yeah, I had to go to the bathroom." I stared at Josh's
uncle like I wasn't afraid of him even though I was about to wet my pants.
"If you touch me again, I'll tell."

I turned and bolted to my
room.

Back in bed, I couldn't fall
asleep. Twenty minutes went by and I was still, wide-awake. Upstairs it was
quiet, so I turned on the bedside light and retrieved Great-Grandma Charlotte's
scrapbook from the floor. Propped up in bed, I flipped to the back page and
re-read the poem. What if there was a real treasure? One of gold or money or
jewels?

On the ride home from the
hospital, Mom had told me about Gram and Great-Grandma Charlotte's money
problems. They were late on their taxes and had borrowed so much money that
they were about to lose their house. If that happened, they would have to come
live with us. That meant I'd have to dress like a fool all the time and Todd
would never like me.

I had told Mom what Grandma
Charlotte had said about the hidden treasure. Mom said there wasn't any.

What if she was wrong?

I thought about all of that
and more as I sat up in bed.

"Why would Grandma
Charlotte tell me to find the Liberty Lady?" It helps me think when I
talked out loud.

"The poem says the
Liberty Lady hides a secret, and the words 'hidden treasure' are mentioned
three times. If Grandma Charlotte never found it, the treasure must be still
hidden somewhere in the house."

My great-great-grandfather's
letter to Grandma Charlotte said there was a "golden surprise and that he
had beat the bank's closing." Maybe the treasure was gold coins.

I re-read the poem slowly
and carefully aloud. It sounded nice.

"I have to write down
the clues or I might miss one." I scampered out of the warm bed to get
paper and a pencil.

"Brrrr, it's
cold." I hopped back in bed and tucked the covers around my feet.I wished Kelsey was there. She's really
good with riddles. Maybe I could call her tomorrow.

"From the east to the west they traveled.

From the North to the South I'm told.

Dragon wings beat the rhythm

Of the hidden treasure of gold."

I stopped and wrote.

Clue 1: Hidden gold
treasure.

Clue 2: The treasure
traveled north, south, east, and west.

Clue 3: Dragon wings have
something to do with the treasure.

I twisted until I stared up
at the carved dragon above the bed. "Do you have a secret for me? I wonder
if you were here when Grandma Charlotte was a girl."

"There came a lone Liberty Lady,

In her right hand she held a key.

She rode a magical beast;

The iron horse of victory."

Clue 4:The Liberty Lady has a key. (Statue of
Liberty?)

Clue 5: She rode a magical
iron horse. (Pegasus?)

"In secret silence she came to stay

In our house hidden safe away,

Not like the other fallen

In depression on that Black Day."

Clue 6: No one knew the lady
came because she hid.

Clue 7: Everyone was sad and
depressed.

Clue 8:There was a black day.(Stormy? Eclipse?)

"She covered herself in star flowers,

Dreaming of fortune for hours;

Hidden deep beneath the wood,

Alone in her ivory
tower."

Clue 9:She's under flowers, under wood, and in
a tower.(The cupola?)

The next stanza had the same
stuff in it as the others. There's no point to write down the same clues
twice.

"Of all the hidden treasures I own;

the money, gold and precious stones,

Not one of them can compare,

to the love a-waiting at home."

Clue 10:There's hidden gold, money, and
precious stones.

Too many clues.

Would I ever find out what
they meant?

I stood on the bed facing
the dragon and ran my hands over him, feeling for a secret compartment. I
didn't find one so I snuggled back between the warm covers and switched off the
light. With my head full of plans for the next day, I drifted into a deep,
dreamless sleep.

The next morning I awoke to
Mom's, "Get out of bed, you sleepy head. It's nine o'clock. Breakfast in
ten."

My bedroom door closed with
a gentle thud.

Be sure and come back next week to find out what happens in

Chapter six.To read the whole book at once, or make it a part of your personal library, find it in paperback on AMAZONorHERE

ShareThis

Privacy Policy
This blog does not share personal information with third parties nor do we store any information about your visit to this blog other than to analyze and optimize your content and reading experience through the use of cookies. You can turn off the use of cookies at anytime by changing your specific browser settings. We are not responsible for republished content from this blog on other blogs or websites without our permission. This privacy policy is subject to change without notice and was last updated on August 18, 2015